MW Mobile Blog

For friends, family and the random search engine visitor. This blog started as an experiment in mobile blogging from my Palm TREO 600700PrēHTC Evo,Samsung 5. Now it serves as a simple repository of favorite activities. Expect bad golf, good fishing, great sailing, eating, drinking, adventure travel, occasional politics and anything else I find interesting along the way including, but not limited to, any of the labels listed here...

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Making Movies on Russian Hill

Busy day in the neighborhood. We received a notice that on the same day of the Bay to Breakers Race, "Duroo Films" would be shooting scenes for a commercial to include "car stunts and parts of chase sequence". They closed our intersection for a block in every direction for the entire day.

I am a little dubious about it being a commercial. It just seemed like way to much of a production and too big a crew just for a commercial, Then there is the matter that "Duroo Films" is apparently a stealth operation. Whatever.

The draw for filming on our corner is the steep straight dropoff on Jones Street. This shoot is apparently reprising part of the Bullitt car chase scene - the one that started it all. We have had some problems on this corner with amateurs attempting car flying off this hill. Hopefully this film will not re-stimulate interest in that particularly dangerous activity.

They started setting up early, yet shooting did not begin until I got back from Bay to Breakers late in the afternoon. We had a birds-eye view from our terrace, and enjoyed watching the proceedings.

Setup in the morning

Crew snacks

This Camaro was the subject of a photo shoot - but it did not do any of the stunts.

A car commercial?

A spare seat for the guy in the clip.

Constructing the ramp.

Stunt driver measures the ramp for the blue car.It's an odd color - perhaps to be easily "green screened" out for post production flexibility?

Of course, you need a cop car for any decent chase.

Finally, late in the afternoon, they got the clips they were after:

So - after closing the intersection for the entire day, with cranes, production equipment and trucks lining two streets, it took this crew of over one hundred to create a shot that will probably be on the screen for less than 10 seconds. What a business.